D. MacHale - The Rivers of Zadaa

We all ran for the vehicle. As we were about to climb in, a building that was thirty yards in front of us exploded. It was as if an atomic water bomb had blown up beneath it. A huge blast of water shot up into the air, much like what had happened when the main building on Kidik Island had exploded.

“They’re starting to go!” I exclaimed.

On cue two more buildings exploded, sending rock and sand and water everywhere. We were pelted with debris. This was the beginning of the end for the underground. The southern gates were giving way. There must have been so much force surging through those first collapsing gates that the tunnels couldn’t contain it. There was more water than space for it to go, so it found its own way.

Kidik was about to be obliterated.

Theworld was exploding around us.

We piled intothedygo. Loor powered up while Saangi sealed the hatch. “Go!” she exclaimed.

Loor hit the throttle, and the dygo sped forward. She told me these buggies were fast. She was right. We bounced along the main street of Kidik as the buildings to either side began to crumble. It truly was like an earthquake. The ground was being torn apart by the force of the water as it sought space. There was no stopping it, because an entire ocean was behind it, pushing it forward. More buildings blew out, while those on levels above toppled. It reminded me of a giant, elaborate sand castle that was being torn apart by the incoming tide.

The street directly in front of us erupted, sending a blast of water high into the air. Loor was able to steer around it. All I could think of was if one of those geysers shot up directly beneath us, we’d be blown over like a toy. I wondered what would happen if we were knocked off our treads. That would be ugly.

To our left a building looked as if it were lifted up into the air a few feet. The whole building shifted in one piece and slid into the street in front of us. It was too late for Loor to avoid it.

“Brace yourself,”she shouted. We hit the building. It was a hard jolt and we knocked around, but the dygo remained intact.

“We can’t outrun this,” I said. “Eventually we’re gonna get nailed.”

“There is only one thing we can do,” Loor said. I was happy to hear that there actually was an option, because I was fresh out of ideas.

“Whatever it is, do it,” I shouted. “Do we dig?” Saangi asked. “We dig,” Loor said.

Loor stopped the dygo. She toggled a switch on the instrument panel. I heard a whine and saw the drill drop from overhead and settle down into its front position.

“Dig what?” I asked.

“Dig out,” Loor answered.

She toggled another switch, and the drill began to spin. She turned the dygo so we were facing one side of the street. In front of us was a stone house that was still intact. It wouldn’t be for long.

“You sure about this?” I asked nervously.

“Brace yourself,” Loor commanded.

She hit the throttle and drove the dygo right into the building. The drill dug through the wall as if it were made of paper. A second later we were in somebody’s living room. Good thing nobody was home. We blasted through, moving past stone furniture, dishes, and even clothing hanging on racks. It was a twisted experience. We ate through wall after wall, room after room. The ceilings collapsed on us as we tore through, but the dygo kept moving. I realized that the many levels of stone buildings that could be seen from the street were nothing more than the front layer of this city. Like all of the underground, Kidik was like a massive beehive. We charged through open areas that looked like market squares. We passed a huge amphitheater with rings of stone seats that would never see another performance. Loor didn’t stop to sightsee. We crashed through more deserted homes. I was feeling kind of guilty, but knew it would only be a matter of time before the surging water did a lot more damage than we were doing.

“Is there a plan here?” I asked.

“We need to get to the surface as quickly as possible,” Loor said. “Following the route we took from Xhaxhu would be suicide. We could never outrace the flood.”

“So what are we looking for here?” I asked.

“We are looking for nothing,” Loor said.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing,” Loor repeated. “We need to get to the rock that Kidik was built on. From there we can drill our own tunnel.”

Loor’s plan was incredible, and incredibly simple. It didn’t matter where we got to the surface, so long as we got there. She had decided to create her own route. From what I’d seen of the dygo, it was possible. The only thing stopping us would be time. We had to outrun the water.

I looked ahead to see we were no longer moving through open space. We had reached the bedrock of Kidik and were drilling our way through. There wasn’t much to see. Looking through the hollow drill bit, all that was visible was the rock we were drilling through. If we were lucky, the next thing we would see through that hole was sky.

I felt myself being pushed back into the seat. A quick glance at the compass thing on the instrument panel showed me that we were headed up. It was like flying through a cloud. There was no way to know when we would come out of it, until we were out. A few times we hit an open air-pocket. I couldn’t tell if they were tunnels, or natural gaps in the rock. It didn’t matter. The treads of the dygo took over, moving us forward until we reached the far side, at which point the drill would go back to work. I didn’t know how fast we were going; there was no point of reference. But I figured it couldn’t be all that fast. The spinning drill cut through the rock like it was Jell-O, but even going through Jell-0took time.

I tried to get a sense of how long we had been sealed inside the dygo. Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes? Saangi, Alder, and I made a point of not talking. We didn’t want to disturb Loor’s concentration. She drove the dygo as easily as if she were driving along a quiet country lane. If she was nervous, she didn’t show it. Then again, she never looked nervous.

We kept digging. My teeth were chattering from the constant vibration. I hoped the fillings in my teeth were strong. I had no idea where to find a dentist on Zadaa. A few minutes later I learned there was something more important to worry about. I felt something tickling the back of my foot. I looked down to see…

“Water!”

The floor of the dygo was wet. The flood had caught us. “Close the vents!” Saangi shouted.

Loor quickly flipped the air vents shut, stopping the leak. I noticed a trickle of water creeping its way onto the windshield. I looked to the far side, where another trickle of water pushed across the outside of the glass.

“Do you see that?” I asked Loor.

“The water is filling up the tunnel behind us,” she said. “Is that bad?” I asked.

“I do not know, Pendragon,” she said. “I have never done anything like this before.”

Good point. This was a new experience for all of us. All we could hope was that the water wouldn’t hit us with such force that the dygo couldn’t take it and we’d be squished. I forced that gruesome possibility out of my head, only to realize there was yet another gruesome possibility to worry about. If we had to keep the vents closed, we had no air. We had to make it to the surface before our air gave out. It had become a race.

Loor angled the dygo steeper and drove it faster. The drill whined in protest. I saw smoke coming from the rock in front of us. Loor wasn’t taking any chances. This was the final push. We had to get to the surface, fast. We were pressed back into our seats. I felt like an astronaut being launched into space. I was sweating. Breathing was getting difficult. There was no way to know how much air we had left, but it couldn’t be much. The situation was dire. If we didn’t break through the surface soon, we would suffocate. We all sat still, trying not to waste any energy that would burn precious air.